World

Nigerians rate Buhari low on corruption, security, economy

Ama Serwaa May 28, 2018 164 0

Despite scoring itself high on its achievements in the past three years, a new poll conducted ‘amongst 4,000 Nigerians’ has rated President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance below average. Last Friday, the presidency in a document made available to PREMIUM TIMES scored Mr Buhari’s government high Read More

World

Malian ‘spiderman’ wows France with Paris child rescue

Kobina Nyame May 28, 2018 1810 4

A Malian migrant has been hailed a hero after he scaled the front of a building in Paris to save a child hanging from a fourth-floor balcony. Video of Mamoudou Gassama’s spectacular rescue went viral on social media. In less than a minute he pulled himself from balcony to balcony and grabbed the four-year-old as […]Read More

World

George H.W. Bush hospitalized for low blood pressure and fatigue

Kobina Nyame May 28, 2018 176 0

Former President George H.W. Bush was taken to a hospital in Maine on Sunday after experiencing low blood pressure and fatigue. “I guess he partied too hard with the American Legion yesterday,” wrote Jean Becker, Bush’s chief of staff, in an email to the former president’s family and friends. “Darn it. “President George H.W. Bush […]Read More

World

Korean leaders meet in surprise summit

Kobina Nyame May 28, 2018 140 0

The leaders of North and South Korea have met in the demilitarised border area between the two countries. The meeting is only the second between South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and the North’s Kim Jong-un. It comes as the two sides continue efforts to put a historic US-North Korea summit back on track. On Thursday US […]Read More

World

Italy crisis: Call to impeach president after candidate vetoed

Kobina Nyame May 28, 2018 185 0

The leader of Italy’s biggest political party has called for the president to be impeached after he vetoed a choice for finance minister. Luigi Di Maio of the populist Five Star Party said President Sergio Mattarella had caused an “institutional crisis”. Efforts by PM-designate Giuseppe Conte to form a government collapsed on Sunday after Mr […]Read More

World

Chelsea Clinton is exactly right about Trump

Kobina Nyame May 28, 2018 197 0

Chelsea Clinton is being wrongly attacked on social media for speaking the truth. In an in-depth interview with The Guardian, the former first daughter said of Trump’s planned visit to the United Kingdom, scheduled for July: “If I lived in Britain I would show up to protest, because I don’t agree with what he’s doing […]Read More

World

North Korea’s Kim ‘set on’ Trump summit

Kobina Nyame May 27, 2018 147 0

It is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “fixed will” that a summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore should go ahead, state media say. Mr Trump cancelled the summit on Thursday, citing the North’s “hostility”, but then rowed back after conciliatory messages from Pyongyang. Leaders of North and South Korea also agreed to Read More

World

FBI warns Russians hacked hundreds of thousands of routers

Kobina Nyame May 27, 2018 192 0

The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic. The U.S. law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates from the manufacturer […]Read More

World

Trump says ‘productive’ talks held on reinstating N Korea summit

Kobina Nyame May 26, 2018 146 0

US President Donald Trump says “very productive talks” have been held with North Korea on reinstating the summit with leader Kim Jong-un. In a tweet, Mr Trump said the meeting could still take place on 12 June in Singapore “and if necessary will be extended beyond that date”. He cancelled the summit on Thursday, blaming […]Read More

World

Putin accuses Britain of blaming ‘all their mortal sins’ on Russia

Kobina Nyame May 26, 2018 148 0

Vladimir Putin has accused the British of blaming “all their mortal sins” on Russia, saying undue accusations have been placed at Moscow’s door for everything from Brexit to the Skripal poisoning and the downing of MH17. The Russian president dismissed suggestions that Russian hackers had been interfering in state affairs, claiming this was “not in […]Read More

World

California University President resigns as abuse scandal widens

Kobina Nyame May 26, 2018 180 0

The president of a top California university resigned Friday in the wake of a growing scandal over a former campus gynecologist who stands accused of sexually abusing thousands of students over a period of decades. C.L. Max Nikias’ departure was announced in a letter by the board of trustees as the University of Southern California […]Read More

World

Botswana hangs man convicted of murder and robbery in 2015

Kobina Nyame May 26, 2018 175 0

Authorities in Botswana have confirmed the hanging on Friday morning of a convicted murderer. The government said on its social media handles that 37-year-old Uyapo Poloko was hanged by the Prisons Service. The execution took place at the Gaborone Centra Prison. It followed a death sentence, which was imposed on Poloko by the Francistown High […]Read More

World

MH17: Russia ‘liable’ for downing airliner over Ukraine

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 144 0

Australia and the Netherlands have formally accused Russia of being responsible for downing a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet in 2014. All 298 people on board MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, died when it was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine. On Thursday, Dutch-led international investigators concluded that the missile […]Read More

World

North Korea ready to talk ‘at any time’ with Donald Trump

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 212 0

North Korea has said it is still willing to talk “at any time in any form” after US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled his meeting with Kim Jong-un. Vice-foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan said Mr Trump’s decision was “extremely regrettable”. President Trump blamed the North’s “open hostility” for the cancellation. The Read More

World

South Africa’s EFF declares deputy president missing in Russia

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 193 0

South Africa’s third political force, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Thursday declared the country’s deputy president missing. The party imputed that he was seeking medical attention in Russia and asked government to come clean on the true mission of David Mabuza outside the country. An EFF press release said the last that had been […]Read More

World

Boko Haram survivors starved, raped by Nigeria’s military – Amnesty

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 165 0

Women who survived the brutal rule of Boko Haram are now facing sexual violence at the hands of the Nigerian military. Shortly after Halima* arrived at a displacement camp in northeast Nigeria, a soldier approached her offering chicken and yams. Halima recognised him as one of the men who had beaten her husband and taken […]Read More

World

Amnesty: Nigeria’s military tortured, raped, killed civilians

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 166 0

Nigeria’s military has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including torture, rape and killing civilians during its fight against Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. The crimes were perpetrated for years and have continued despite a presidential inquiry established last August whose findings have not been Read More

World

Migrants suffer amid rising anti-immigration sentiment in Italy

Kobina Nyame May 25, 2018 164 0

Italy will soon have a populist government populated by politicians who promise to take a hard line on immigration. Migrants sit on green plastic chairs in a soundless waiting room. Volunteers call them over, one by one. On a coffee table, Italy’s populist politicians look up from the front page of an unread newspaper. “Italy […]Read More

World

North Korea nuclear test tunnels at Punggye-ri ‘destroyed’

Kobina Nyame May 24, 2018 189 0

North Korea appears to have blown up tunnels at its only nuclear test site, in a move to reduce regional tensions. Foreign reporters at the Punggye-ri site in the north-east said they witnessed a huge blast. Pyongyang later said the site had been dismantled. The move by the North is seen as part of a […]Read More

World

Boko Haram crisis: Amnesty accuses Nigeria troops of rape

Ama Serwaa May 24, 2018 166 0

Nigerian soldiers have raped women and girls who fled the insurgency by militant Islamist group Boko Haram, Amnesty International has said. Troops separated women from their husbands and raped them, sometimes in exchange for food, in refugee camps, the rights group added. Thousands of people have also starved to death in the camps in north-eastern […]Read More

World

Martin Luther King’s daughter rubbishes Bannon claim about Trump

Kobina Nyame May 24, 2018 211 0

The daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King has debunked a claim that the civil rights icon would have been “proud of” Donald Trump. Steve Bannon – formerly President Donald Trump’s top strategist – told the BBC Mr King would have approved of the US president’s economic policies. Bernice King, however, said Mr Bannon […]Read More

World

Trump threatens aid cut to countries that do not stop MS-13 gang migrants

Kobina Nyame May 24, 2018 159 0

President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday he was working on a plan to reduce U.S. aid to countries he says are doing nothing to stop MS-13 gang members from crossing into the United States illegally. “We’re looking at our whole aid structure. It’s going to be changed very radically,” Trump told a roundtable discussion about […]Read More

World

Boy, 4, in court for kissing classmate, 3

Ama Serwaa May 23, 2018 260 0

A four-year-old boy ended up in an Egyptian court charged with assault after accused of kissing his classmate, three. The boy’s father – told the privately-owned al-Mehwar TV their nightmare had started after the girl’s father saw him kissing her. But it was finally ended after a judge sitting in a juvenile misdemeanour court in […]Read More

World

Snake slithers out of man’s cereal box, hides in dishwasher

Ama Serwaa May 23, 2018 236 0

A British man sitting down for breakfast received a fright when a snake slithered out of his cereal box and fled into his dishwasher. The RSPCA said Animal Collection Officer Katie Hetherington responded Saturday morning to a home in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, where a man reported a 3-foot snake had emerged from his box of […]Read More

World

Trump casts doubt on planned summit with North Korean leader

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 133 0

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was a “substantial chance” his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not take place as planned on June 12 amid concerns that Kim is resistant to giving up his nuclear weapons. Trump raised doubts about the Singapore summit in talks with South Korean President […]Read More

World

Iranian officials split over response to U.S. demands

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 154 0

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented a list of sweeping demands for Iran, including abandoning nuclear enrichment, its ballistic missile program and its role in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, or face “the strongest sanctions in history”. Four senior Iranian officials contacted by Reuters interpreted Pompeo’s remarks as a “bargaining strategy”, similar to Read More

World

Philip Roth: Portnoy’s Complaint author dies aged 85

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 189 0

One of the great American authors, Philip Roth, has died aged 85. The Pulitzer, National Book Award and Man Booker International Prize-winning novelist’s work drew its inspiration from Jewish family life, sex and American ideals. His works included American Pastoral, I Married a Communist and Portnoy’s Complaint. The New York Times reported that a close […]Read More

World

US mid-term elections: First black female nominee for governor

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 135 0

A former Georgia lawmaker and author has taken a major step towards becoming the first ever African-American female governor of a US state. Stacey Abrams won the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday, telling voters that trying to “convert” Republicans into Democrats had previously failed. A Democrat has not held the red state’s governor’s mansion Read More

World

U.S. court backs transgender student at center of bathroom dispute

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 162 0

A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled that federal law protects a transgender student who fought all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to use a bathroom at a high school in VU.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk rejected a bid by the Gloucester County School Board to dismiss the civil […]Read More

World

Complaints that Zuckerberg ‘avoided questions’ at European parliament

Kobina Nyame May 23, 2018 142 0

Mark Zuckerberg’s meeting at the European parliament ended in acrimony amid a chorus of complaints that the Facebook founder had been allowed to evade questions and give vague answers. Over the 90-minute session, the Facebook founder told MEPs there would be no repeat of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal as he fielded accusations that his […]Read More